Question

Outside her cottage, old Mrs. Taylor was hanging out laundry on a wire line, unaware that some children were hiding in a nearby tree watching her every move. They were determined to find out if she really was a witch.

They watched nervously as she took a broomstick to sweep the dirt from her stone steps. But much to their disappointment, she didn’t get on the broomstick and fly off. The old lady only looked up when her hen began to make sounds loudly — signaling that she had laid an egg in the nest on the top of the haystack(干草堆).

The old lady put aside her broomstick and walked to the haystack, followed by Michael, a black cat she had rescued from a fox trap. With only three legs, it was hard for Michael to keep up with his mistress. The cat was proof for the children that only a witch would own a black cat with three legs! Crawling further along the branches, they could clearly see the haystack.

Mrs. Taylor was standing on a wooden box with the new-laid egg in one hand. Placing the egg in her pocket, she readied herself to climb down. Then, without warning, the box broke under her and she crashed to the ground. The children were in horror.

“Should we go and help her?” asked Mia.

“What if it’s a trick?” replied Patrick. “She probably knows we’re here. Witches know things like that!”

After thinking for a while, Julia said “Anyway, we should go and check whether she is all right.”

Approaching prudently, they could see a wound on the old lady’s forehead. She had knocked her head on a stone and was unconscious.

“Go and get Dad,” Mia yelled to her brothers. “Tell him about the accident.”

The boys didn’t need another excuse to leave. They ran as fast as they could for help, hoping that Mrs. Taylor would not regain consciousness and turn the girls into frogs.

Later, in the hospital, the old lady smiled her thanks. “I was so lucky that you lovely children happened to be passing when I fell. I must have yelled quite loudly.”

The children exchanged guilty glances, but were very pleased that she was not a witch after all!

1.Mrs. Taylor stopped sweeping when ________.

A. her doorstep became very clean

B. she heard the hen making sounds loudly

C. she noticed the children in the tree

D. her cat Michael managed to get her attention

2.Why was Patrick not willing to help Mrs. Taylor when she fell?

A. He thought that she could be cheating them.

B. He was afraid of the three-legged black cat.

C. He did not think that she was hurt in the fall.

D. He knew he and the others shouldn’t have been in her tree.

3.Which of the definitions is closest in meaning to the underlined word “prudently”?

A. Slowly.B. Hurriedly.C. Carefully.D. Quietly.

4.Which of these old sayings best summaries the lesson from story?

A. Make hey while the sun shines.

B. Never judge a book by its cover.

C. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

D. People in glasshouses shouldn’t throw stones.

Answer 1